Labor groups bare plans for May 1 'Day of Outrage'

A day after President Benigno Aquino III thumbed down calls for a legislated wage hike, labor groups on Wednesday bared plans for a "Day of Outrage" on Labor Day, May 1. The Kilusang Mayo Uno said it and its allied groups will also hold local protest actions starting April 14, to culminate in a major protest on May 1. "We declare May 1 as Workers’ Day of Outrage over stagnant low wages and unabated price increases, as well as the Aquino regime’s anti-worker policies. We are calling on the Filipino workers and people to join the protest on May 1 by the tens of thousands and show the Aquino regime how disgusted we are with its anti-worker policies," KMU chairman Elmer Labog said in a news release on the KMU website. Labog said the KMU will take inspiration from the "Days of Outrage" launched by the workers and peoples of the Middle East and North Africa against widespread unemployment and curtailment of democratic rights in their countries. "Just like them, we will be protesting the effects of the global economic crisis and the ruling regime’s pro-elite and anti-people policies," he added. On Tuesday, Presidential Communications Development and Planning Office head Ramon Carandang said the government is not keen on supporting a legislated P125 across-the-board wage increase for private-sector workers nationwide. Carandang, who said the measure could be "inflationary," said Aquino is not keen on certifying the wage hike bill as urgent. Carandang noted that Aquino, during his stint in the House of Representatives and Senate, did not vote for the approval of the bill on P125 wage hike. "What the President supported when he was a member of Congress was a bill that would increase penalties for companies that were not complying with the minimum wage law but not with the increase per se," he said on Tuesday. To which, the KMU retorted: "No less than Malacañang is making it clear: the Filipino workers and people have every right to be outraged in the face of starvation wages, unabated price increases." The KMU also criticized Carandang’s statement that a legislated and substantial wage increase will be inflationary. "The basic point is that even without a substantial wage increase, the prices of oil and other basic goods and services have increased at a rate that has far outstripped the meager increases in wages. By trying to discredit calls for a substantial wage, the Aquino regime is making it appear that we have no other choice than to put up with our meager wages and hungry stomachs," Labog said. "The truth is that the Aquino regime is insensitive towards the plight of the Filipino workers and people and is actively conniving with big capitalists in pressing down workers’ wages to starvation levels. The Aquino regime is paying back big capitalists for the huge funds they poured into his campaign kitty in the last elections with value created by workers," he added. — RSJ, GMA News